It was already decided two weeks ago that Ali Reza-Qoli's Jaame-eh
shenaasi-e Nokhbeh-koshi ("The Sociology of Eliminating the Cream
of the Crop") would be this week's cover story. And now, by unhappy
coincidence, the November 23 gruesome murder of the nationalist opposition
leader, Dariush Forouhar, and his activist wife Parvaneh, will bring the
book's message more into focus.

Jaame-eh shenaasi-e Nokhbeh-koshiis a 240-page indictment against
those who bare the greatest responsibility in the down fall of the country's
most progressive leaders in recent centuries. And who does this Iranian
sociologist blame the most? Foreign powers and their Iranian agents? No.
Ourselves.

It is this rare and unequivocal admission that has made Ali Reza-Qoli's
book a huge success. Less than a year since its publication, Jaame-eh
shenaasi-e Nokhbeh-koshi(Ney Publishers, Tehran, 1998) has been reprinted
at least eight times. Here are some excerpts in Persian: